


Adventures in Synesthesia

by 12drakon



Series: Make Jazz Not War [4]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Meta, Synesthesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 23:36:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13669662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/12drakon/pseuds/12drakon
Summary: If they knew about synesthesia, Jazz would make art with it, and Soundwave would weaponize it. Turns out that the humans can experience something akin to Soundwave’s peculiarities: synesthesia. Here are some human-centered notes that readers of Shall We Go to the End might find relevant





	Adventures in Synesthesia

Jazz wouldn’t know it and Soundwave wouldn’t care, but the humans can experience something akin to Soundwave’s peculiarities: synesthesia.

While telling the part of the story where Jazz watches Soundwave’s strange suffering in the brig, I listened to music. A jazz piece called Suburbia by Trombone Shorty. Our writing group’s prompt that week was to make a story based on a song.

When I listen to that song, tingles like slight electric currents start in my lower arms and spread to my back. Cool and warm, cool and warm waves come through my chest. My stomach tightens, as if before a tricky jump. My hands grow heavy and hot.

These are examples of sound-to-tactile synesthesia. Most people have some form of that synesthesia some of the time, for example, shivering from good music.

Some synesthesia is simple. For example, a person just knows that 3 is red while 8 is blue; the mind’s eye sees these colors as an aspect of its number sense. Ask a roomful of people what colors are numbers 1, 2, 3. A few people will answer fast and with great certainty - and then, they might argue whose colors are right. Simple synesthesia may also link a musical note to a color, or a color to a smell.

Some synesthesia is complex. A long formula as a melody? Mathematicians describe such experiences. How about artists?

As a stand-alone work of abstract art, [this mandala by Krinsyn](https://krinsyn.tumblr.com/post/169928280105/special-synesthesia-song-commission-for-12drakon) is gorgeous. The shapes are dynamic, the colors vibrant, and the symmetry multiplies the impact. Yet there is more to the image than meets the eye. It captures the sensory essence of the song it represents - Suburbia, as it happens, a special commission to celebrate, when I finished this story.

‘Represent’ is too weak a word; ‘experience’ is more accurate. Here is a quote from Krinsyn: the experience in the artist’s own words and images.

 

> _As an example, here are some sketches I did in preparation for this piece. This first shows a very beautiful, but extremely stylized visual for the bass:_
> 
> _Whereas this sketch shows more of the actual texture/feeling of the bass:_
> 
> _Aesthetic beauty and accuracy are not always mutually exclusive XD After consulting 12drakon about which she would prefer, I tried to stylize the instruments as little as possible. Trombone sounds:_
> 
> _The distortion of electric guitar and bass has a very specific look to it - full of holes, kind of like lace or Swiss cheese:_

Here is a curious surprise. My body reacts to these images and other [Krinsyn’s music-inspired art](https://thebutterfly.deviantart.com/gallery/26919235/Synesthesia-Art) as it does to music: with tingles, heat-cold waves, and all that jazz. That's not my usual art gallery experience at all!

A few years ago, about the time I began to write about Jazz and Soundwave, I realized that my experiences amount to synesthesia. I set out to research it - mostly trying to avoid harm. I’d have ‘random’ mood swings at a cafe where music plays; I’ve had to escape dance halls and concerts; I’d jump out of my skin (at least, not out of the car!) when a family member flipped through radio stations. Sometimes sounds caused pleasure as well; sometimes in surprising, unwelcome manner.

Maybe one day I will hook up to a brain imagine machine and see what’s going on in there. It is so dreamy that Cybertronians can access their processors directly! We can’t hack our firewalls as Soundwave does. Still, with research and practice, we can learn to play with our senses in joyful complex ways. Synesthesia cross-wires two or more senses, and that can become a gift, an opportunity to make and experience art in new ways.

***

P.S. Perhaps we can hack? Artist Neil Harbisson was born completely color blind, but these days a device attached to his head turns color into audible frequencies. Instead of seeing a world in grayscale, Harbisson can hear a symphony of color - and yes, even listen to a face, a painting, or a salad. His TED talk - “Today, I am dressed in C-Major, a happy chord,” he says:

P.P.S. Hat tip to Rizobact for this piece, called ‘The World’s Ugliest Music’. Musical beauty comes from patterns. This piece has absolutely no repetition, no pattern of any kind. It’s a feat to compose, and it took some heavy theory. Field theory, as it happens to be named, a part of abstract algebra. This math was first developed to hunt submarines with perfect sonar pings. I love the piece, starting around 7:40 in the video. It is very peaceful to me: there are no tingles, no heat or cold, no touch. Only one sense, only the pure sound. Soundwave would love it. And Krinsyn doesn’t see a fantastic landscape while listening to the piece. Curious, isn’t it?


End file.
